Bill Introduced to Raise County Income Tax Cap, Allow Brackets

As reported by the Gazette, Senator Roger Manno from Montgomery County, recently introduced legislation that would allow counties to set differing rates for the income tax it receives from the State to help generate revenue to offset the cost of the teacher pension shift proposed in the Governor’s budget.

Manno’s bill would authorize county governments to create different tax brackets on individual incomes, up to 3.5 percent. County income tax rates currently range from 1.25 percent to 3.2 percent through the state’s so-called piggyback tax, which the state collects as a courtesy for the local jurisdictions.

It would enable local governments to generate more income from high earners or effectively cut taxes for people with lower incomes, Manno said.

The bill has been filed as SB 218, and will be on the weekly discussion list for MACo’s Legislative Committee.

Senator Manno said the following regarding his proposal:

“I’m trying to throw stuff out there to try and provide some revenue options,” Manno said. “So we can have more intelligent, more robust dialogue about which way the state’s going to [go].”